By Stephen Lawson, Computer World
Weeks before the Republican and Democratic national conventions that will anoint each party’s nominee for president, special equipment to boost cellular signals in each party’s venues is already nearly installed. The thousands of participants and armies of reporters that will flock to both events are expected to produce enough calls, Tweets, videos and other mobile traffic to bring an average cellular network to its knees. So TE Connectivity is deploying DASes (distributed antenna systems) all around the facilities where the parties will meet. DAS is a widely used technology for extending cellular capacity and coverage in buildings and in outdoor areas where a lot of people gather. It consists of many small antennas mounted throughout an area and linked to a base station via fiber or cable. Amplifiers boost the signal over the cable so each antenna has enough power to handle the area it’s assigned to cover. To get the most use out of the frequencies available, a DAS may divide a building into multiple areas, called sectors, each with its own set of channels.
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